Disabled or handicapped persons, such as those being unable to speak, oftentimes have great difficulty communicating their basic needs to others. In order to aid a disabled person in communicating his or her basic thoughts, needs, or wants, various types of communication aids have been developed in the past. Devices of this type have been helpful for people with communication difficulties, such as aphasia, multiple sclerosis, neurological disorders, mental retardation, and other brain disorders, voice, hearing and visual difficulties, or post operative problems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,890 describes a communication aid utilizing a series of pictures or illustrations representing basic needs joined together on a ring. By selecting the proper illustration, the disabled person can communicate his or her needs or wants to others.
Another type of communication aid is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,633, which has particular use for disabled persons who have movement of their arms or legs but are unable to verbally communicate. In this device, a pointer is mounted for rotation on a generally flat surface of a housing and a series of pictures or illustrations, representing basic needs, are positioned on the housing surface. By depressing a push-button on the housing, the pointer is rotated and brought into registry with one of the illustrations on the housing to represent the need of the person.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,083 shows another form of communication aid, utilized by a motionless person also unable to verbally communicate. The disclosed communication aid is a device in which a series of pictures or illustrations representing possible needs of the person are mounted on a transparent board around a center hole or opening. An attendant, who is holding the board and looking through the opening, can follow the eye movement of the person to one of the illustrations on the board to thereby determine the specific need of the person.
While the above-identified communication aids are effective in relaying the basic needs of a person in a visual manner, these communication aids provide no audio output related to the need of the handicapped person. For this reason, an attendant or nurse aiding the handicapped person must be in a position such that they can visually see the communication aid and determine the need of the person. Additionally, it has been found that a device which produces an audio message provides the handicapped person with a method of communication that increases self-sufficiency since the audio signal can be easily interpreted by anyone. Thus, a communication aid which provides a sound message corresponding to the need of a disabled or handicapped person would be particularly desirable.